Gothic Voices

Founded twenty-five years ago by scholar and musician Christopher Page, Gothic Voices has had a career of unparalleled success and diversity, bringing unfamiliar music - predominantly from the 11th to the 15th century - to audiences all over the world. The group has sung in great cathedrals in Germany and Spain, medieval abbeys in France and Italy, theatres, concert halls and even a shopping centre (in Ecuador). The singers have toured widely in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, North and South America to immense acclaim. In London they have appeared in the BBC Promenade concerts and at the Spitalfields Festival, performing regularly in the Wigmore Hall and at the South Bank Centre. Elsewhere in Britain they have performed at the Aldeburgh and Chester Festivals, the York and Birmingham Early Music Festivals and at the International Festivals of Edinburgh and Cheltenham. Overseas venues include the Flanders and Utrecht Early Music Festivals and the Vestfold Festival in Norway.

As well as its wide-ranging concert schedule, Gothic Voices has recorded more than twenty CDs, of which three won Gramophone Magazine Awards, whilst its first disc: ‘A Feather on the Breath of God – Hymns and Sequences by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen’ remains one of the best-selling recordings of pre-classical music ever made. Underlying these achievements has been Gothic Voices’ commitment to bring medieval music into the mainstream; and, through the beauty of performing style and the thoughtful range of programmes which make imaginative use of their available combinations of voices, the singers have won the appreciation and devotion of audiences throughout the world.

Nor has that commitment been only to medieval music: Gothic Voices takes the initiative of commissioning contemporary works for its unusual vocal forces. In 1997 the group commissioned a piece by Bayan Northcott and gave its first performance in the Cheltenham Festival. Another newly-commissioned piece by Andrew Keeling is to be recorded early in 2005 and will receive its first performance during a tour of Slovenia in August. The group was involved in the ‘Homage to Gyorgy Ligeti’ series at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, whilst future plans include further collaboration with the Chilingirian String Quartet in programmes contrasting medieval music with works by Sir John Tavener and Igor Stravinsky.

As Gothic Voices embarks on a series of concerts to celebrate its silver jubilee, the singers are proud to claim that, in a world where the term ‘medieval’ is so often used in a pejorative sense, their quest remains as ever to perform this wonderful music in a way which is positively medieval!

Discography

Music for the Lion-Hearted King

Mundus vergens Novus miles sequitur A la doucour de la bele seson Sol sub nube latuit Hac in anni ianua Anglia, planctus itera Etas auri reditur Vetus abit littera In occasu sideris L'amours dont sui espris Purgator criminum Li nouviauz tanz Pange melos lacrimosum Ma joie me semont Ver pacis apperit Latex silice

This CD commemorates the eight hundreth anniversary of King Richard the First's coronation in Westminster Abbey. Soloists or groups of two to four singers perform each piece a cappella, sometimes overlapping melodies and harmonies with dazzling technicality. Each track glows with vocal virtuosity. The effect heightens with each successive listen.

8748 CD $11.95

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The Marriage of Heaven & Hell

Je ne chant pas / Talens m'est pris Trois sereurs / Trois sereurs / Trois sereurs En tous tans que vente bise - Blondel de Nesle Plus bele que flors / Quant revient / L'autrier jouer Par un matinet / He, sire! / He bergier! De la virge Katerine / Quant froidure / Agmina milicie Trop volentiers chanteroie - Colin Muset Ave parens / Ad gratie Super te Jerusalem / Sed fulsit virginitas A vous douce debonnaire Mout souvent / Mout ai este en dolour Can vei la lauzeta mover - Bernart de Ventadorn Quant voi l'aloete / Diex! je ne m'en partire ja En non Dieu / Quant voi la rose Autres que je ne sueill fas - Gautier de Dargies Je m'en vois / Tels a mout Festa januaria

An essential document of 13th-century music and of vocal performance of three- and four-voice motets. 'A wonderful collection. Lusciously sung sensuous music...remarkable addition to the distinguished sereis of records from Gothic Voices' (Gramophone)

8826 CD $13.95

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The Castle of Fair Welcome

Le souvenir de vous me tue - Robert Morton Puisque ma damme / Je m'en voy - Johannes Regis Las je ne puis plus nullement durer - Anonymous Que pourroit plus - Robert Morton Myn hertis lust - Johannes Bedyngham Dueil angoisseux - Gilles de Binchois Ne je ne dors - Guillaume Dufay En amours n'a si non bien - Anonymous La pena sin ser sabida - Vincent du Bruecquet Mi ut re ut (Venise) - Anonymous Plus j'ay le monde regarde - Robert Morton So ys emprinted Walter Frye Ma dame, trop vous mesprenes - Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy Pues servicio vos desplaze - Enrique

This Gothic Voices offering covers most of the material found in a songbook (a manuscript collection of favoured songs) dating from around AD 1200. It was only rediscovered by chance, the original manuscript having been disassembled for use as flyleaves for another book. Precious little information is given in the sleeve note about the circumstances of that rediscovery, which is a shame, and we read that it can only be guessed that the songbook had its origins within some kind of religious foundation. Just over half the songs are monophonic and most relate to Christian feasts, especially Christmas. But as in many such collections from across the centuries, the fun comes in discovering the more eclectic choices of music for inclusion. Here, for example, there are songs bewailing the sale of ecclesiastical offices, the need to use flattery to get on in life and the prevalence of greed and disrespect for the law, plus a marvellous love song featuring a young man's agonising choice between the charms of "little Flora" and his studies. The tasteful, sensitive Gothic Voices performances are everything we have come to expect.

8827 CD $13.95

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A Feather on the Breath of God

Columba aspexit Ave, generosa O ignis spiritus O Ierusalem O Euchari O viridissima virga O presul vere civitatis O Ecclesia

This is the record that started the Hildegard craze back in 1982--and you need only listen to Emma Kirkby glide and soar through Columba aspexit (the opening hymn) to understand why. Gothic Voices performs the music very simply, either alternating soloists and unison choir over a drone or using a single unaccompanied voice. The singers render Hildegard's extravagant poetic imagery and melody not with the rhythmically fluid, ecstatic approach favoured by Sequentia, but with equalist rhythm and a calm, meditative quality. Gothic Voices' straightforward approach is less likely to send you into a rapturous trance than is Sequentia's, but in the hands of such fine singers as Kirkby, Margaret Philpot, and Emily van Evera, Hildegard's extraordinary texts and melodies are captivating--and clear enough to linger in the memory as melodies rather than just sensations. This record is still a bestselling title - try it and find out why.

8828 CD $19.95

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